


A People, In Her Eyes

by Hadrian_Pendragons



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Childhood, Edward Elric-centric, Gen, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Alphonse Elric, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Edward Elric, Ishbalan | Ishvalan Trisha Elric, Ishvalan War, Mentions of wartime conditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:56:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27179572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hadrian_Pendragons/pseuds/Hadrian_Pendragons
Summary: Edward Elric listened to his mother without question. But sometimes, curiosity can break promises.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Trisha Elric
Comments: 5
Kudos: 82
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	A People, In Her Eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Othalla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Othalla/gifts).



When the soldiers came home, his mom bundled him and Al into the attic, board games and snacks abound, and told them not to go downstairs unless she was with them.

Edward, with but eight years of age with him, asked his mother why.

She smiled, but he could see the way it didn’t reach her ruby eyes. “We’re playing a game. But if they see you, we lose.”

He didn’t believe her. Ed’s own eyes, pools of molten gold, saw much of his mother’s pain. The pain she held when watching the very door his father had left through. The pain she held when the neighbors checked in on them, bringing groceries and things for Ed and Al. The pain she hid when he inevitably asked her why they didn’t go into town at all anymore, and why she always wore a shawl over her head to hide her face and long clothing to hide her dark skin.

Ed saw the lie for what it was.

But, just as he did all the other times, he nodded. Ed walked over to Alphonse, who he would always protect because their mother worked so hard for the both of them that he wanted to help her out wherever he could, and told him about the game. Then he pulled Al and his mother into a silent game of hide and seek. If they needed to hide, a little practice wouldn’t hurt, right?

* * *

Winry appeared at the door one day.

She was red-faced and crying.

Ed was close to asking her what was wrong, but she blurted out the answer.

“Mom and Dad are dead. They’ll never come home.”

Ed brought her inside, grabbed Al from the alchemy books, and sat Winry between them on the living room sofa. In his mind, he spoke the words his mother had taught him when one of the old neighbors left the world.

_ May She guide our souls into Her embrace. May they rest peacefully in their slumber. May Ishvala keep them safe. _

Winry cried. Alphonse didn’t know what was going on, but he knew she was upset, and, after a shared look with Ed, knew it was bad. They kept her close until their mother came home from the neighbor’s with a fresh baked pie, and asked what was wrong.

All three of them latched onto her.

She wrapped them up in her arms without hesitation

Edward thought that if Ishvala existed among humans, then she would be his mother.

* * *

Edward knew there was a war.

The adults didn’t speak much of it, except for Granny Pinako. She would curse the notices the military sent, about borrowing ‘provisions’ and setting up their tents in their fields, hundreds of men at a time.

What she wouldn’t do, and what frustrated him to no end, was mention what the war was  _ about.  _ He and Al were forbidden from going into town. They didn’t even go to school, even though Winry went with the other kids in Risembool. Edward knew he and Al were somewhat different from them. He could see the physical differences in their tanned skin. His mother said they were so smart, she could teach them herself—though that really meant bringing back books for them to consume. He trusted his mother, but it was strange, and the need to  _ know  _ began to outweigh his need to follow his mother’s rules.

So, one day, while Al and Winry were consumed in playing with Den, and while Granny Pinako worked on stew for dinner, he closed his book and snuck from the front porch to the main road, all the while apologizing to his mother and Ishvala in his mind.

It didn’t take long to reach town, when he knew the shortcuts through the fields like the back of his hand. He stayed out of sight, ducking around buildings and produce stands and crowds of people, and he kept his head low. 

He heard a conversation.

“Did you hear? The state’s decided to send in their alchemists.”

“This isn’t a war. It’s nothing but a bloodbath.”

“If they’re sending the alchemists… Ishval will be a crater by the end of the month.”

Ed’s blood froze.

His mother told him lines of scripture.  _ She will provide for their people and their homes. The holy land of Ishval shall be their sanctuary. _

She never answered his question of where Ishval was.

Something terrifying settled within him. Something that told him to run. To turn back and apologize to his mother and bundle Al into the attic and never let him go.

But the need to know glued him to the spot, hidden behind a table. He listened further.

“I heard they’re sending the Flame.”

“ _ Hah.  _ A crater? There won’t be a trace of the bastards.”

“Don’t talk like that. The Ishvalans never did anything to us.”

“My  _ son  _ died by a red-eyed demon’s hand. They’ve done enough.”

“And the Ishvalans escalated it. Amestris is only responding in kind.”

“I wonder how many the Flame’ll burn before this is over…”

“That’s enough.”

“What, are you defending those demons?”

“...”

“That’s what I thought.”

Ed ran.

He ran and ran and ran and didn’t look back. He didn’t pause when he passed Granny rushing down the road to the town, Den behind her. He didn’t look back when she yelled at him. He didn’t stop until he burst into their house on the hill and found his mother in the kitchen.

Out of breath, heart beating much too fast, he stood in the doorway and gasped for air.

She looked at him with her beautiful ruby eyes. She smiled, despite the crease in her brow.

“Ed? What’s wrong?”

He lunged at her. He wrapped his fingers up in her apron and buried his face in her dress and all of a sudden began to cry.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,  _ I’m sorry—” _

“Now, Ed,” she leaned down and pulled him into her arms. He couldn’t stop apologizing.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

_ We’re not demons. _

_ “I’m sorry.” _

_ We’re a people. All of us, people in the eyes of Ishvala. That’s what mom says. _

_ Not demons. _

Pinako burst through the door and ratted him out. He didn’t really care. His mom held him tighter when she realized what he’d done. Al and Winry were watching through the door, and he felt bad, crying when his mother was working so hard to protect him and Al. He felt bad for disobeying her, when she’d done so much to keep them safe.

He didn’t tell Al what he had heard. Winry probably already knew. He was that much more grateful for the neighbors that gave them food and told the soldiers that the house was abandoned.

He and Al played hide and seek every day. Al got tired of the game, but Ed insisted that it was all he would play when they weren’t studying alchemy.

_ State alchemists. _

There were a few things Edward truly hated. Milk. His father. The fear and pain in his mother’s eyes.

He decided the military made that list, as well. Right at the top.

Edward consumed as much of his father’s alchemy texts as he could. It was a tool, one the state apparently abused. 

Ed would use it to keep his family safe.

And if his mother’s eyes lit up in pride whenever he and Al showed her the new things they could do, well, it was all the more motivation to follow through.


End file.
